Recently I've been reflecting upon government philosophy a lot, mostly due to my newly acquired knowledge about the ideals of Communism and Democracy. In these reflections, I've realized that the Communist ideals are actually not all bad, and they do solve some of the problems that are presented by Democracy. However, they take away some of the ideals that are distinctly American, such as the right to personal property and complete freedom of decision. Things like a stable, state-controlled economy are the polar opposite of our big, complicated, Capitalist market, and as a result most Americans will instantly reject any government philosophy affiliated with communism because it violates every part of the "American Way". In spite of what many Americans (and Russians/Chinese for that matter) think, both the East and the West got some things right and some things wrong. Many socialist governments (the USSR in particular) rely/relied heavily on arms to support the economy, and stagnated in times of peace. Democratic states such as the United States are very prone to corruption, with the most well-known case of this being the Watergate Scandal. I personally believe that taking the best of both philosophies would result in a near-Utopian society where almost everybody is happy, fed, and housed.

Now for the more specific details of Utopia. I believe the ideal government has to balance the things that are important, and that almost everybody should be fed, housed, and not unhappy because of the government. Rights to personal freedom, wealth, and property need to be balanced with sacrifice for the collective, order, and safety. I imagine policies that satisfied this would be very difficult to create and put into place, but the most important thing is that the people believe in it.

As we move into the technological age, many daily tasks have been digitized. It won't be long until our monetary transactions are digital as well, and the conversion has already begun. There are a number of digital currencies that exist now, although none of them have been put in to widespread use. This is for a number of reasons, chief among them are fluctuating exchange rates, illicit activity, and hackers. Bitcoin's value has been extremely inconsistent, with its value increasing by %1000 in just four months (between January and April 2013), and there have already been a few incidences of wire fraud in the network.

However, despite the difficulty to transfer, I believe digital currency will eventually be stable, and we can all live in a happy Utopian society where inflation is controlled and there are no more major financial crises (hopefully). The reason I believe this is possible is because of the digital economies that exist within some online video games (I always have to have a tie-in), especially Team Fortress 2's trading system, Runescape's Grand Exchange, Diablo III's Real Money Auction House, etc. The economies of TF2 and Runescape are relatively stable, despite the constant stream of content being added to the game. I understand that real economies are infinitely more complex than the games, mostly because money can be exchanged two ways and there are things like banks and loans (although there are scrap bankers in TF2). The system will encounter difficulties, and may even put us in another depression, but we will eventually use digital currency.

1) "Nerd" and "Geek" are not the same2) The terms Nerd and Geek are usually mutually inclusive3) Nerds play video games4) Nerds will use unnecessarily large words and have an extensive vocabulary5) Nerds will talk about science in a casual conversation6) Nerds are good at math, even if they don't like it7) Nerds write code8) Nerds hate simplified UI's9) Nerds pick an operating system and defend it to the death10) Nerds pick a mobile operating system and defend it to the death11) Nerds use correct grammar when typing12) One in four nerds will become a neckbeard13) Nerds do not watch live television14) Nerds never pay for software or intellectual property unless they choose to15) If it is digital, a nerd can get it for free16) Nerds love open source17) Every nerd is a fanboy of something18) Nerds will attend conventions19) What happens at ComicCon stays at ComicCon20) Nerds watch Science Fiction21) Nerds read Science Fiction22) Every nerd rages about something23) All nerds rant about minutia24) Nerds watch pro gaming25) Nerds choose a team and follow it to the death26) Nerds will participate in a flame war27) Nerds do not use Facebook, it is for the common rabble28) Some nerds tweet29) Nerds play indie games30) Nerds hate Call of Duty31) Nerds hate Call of Duty fanboys32) Nerds know all reboot series will be bad33) The original is always better34) Old nerds like Tom Baker, Robocop, and Doom 235) Young nerds like David Tennant, Iron Man, and Starcraft II36) Nerds support Anon37) Nerds use Reddit38) Nerds should know the Rules of the Internet39) Nerds share ethernet cables40) Nerds build their own41) When nerds build their own, they do not necessarily do it well42) Nerds are wherever there is an internet connection43) Female nerds are a minority44) Male nerds wish female nerds were not a minority45) Nerds don't care about sports46) Nerds know memes47) Nerds don't call each other, they use voice communication48) Nerds don't End Task, they Terminate Process49) Nerds have a name and a UserName50) Nerds hate DLC, but buy it anyway51) If it costs too much, it's Horse Armor52) American nerds wish there was more WiFi53) European nerds laugh at America's lack of WiFi54) Nerds prefer a wired connection55) Nerds hate hardware limitations56) Nerds demand 60fps57) Nerds are purists58) Nerds stay up late and sleep late59) Nerds hate ignorance60) Nerds are addicted to artificial stimulants61) Nerds hate piracy62) Nerds support the developer63) Nerds work best in do-ocracies64) Nerds love fast food65) Nerds are paranoid about hackers66) Nerds who are hackers are paranoid about hackers67) Nerds know corporations are evil68) Nerds do not tl;dr nerd-related things69) Nerds use clever double entendres70) Anybody who tl;dr-ed this post has their nerd status revoked71) Nerd swag is everything72) Nerds wish they were the sickest nerd baller73) Nerds hate "yolo"74) Nerds hate people who use "hashtag" in a sentance75) #thisisnottwitter76) Nerds know they will rule the world77) Nerds will be a nerd for their entire life78) Nerds will use references and plant Easter eggs79) Nerds believe in the church of Newtonian Physics80) They also acknowledge that Newtonian Physics do not apply to everything81) Nerds are the center of their own observable universe82) Nerds have intellectual pursuits83) Nerds quote famous literature, speeches, and television84) Nerds often parody these quotations85) Nerds know that the internet is usually mightier than the assault rifle86) Nerds Google it87) When a nerd Googles something, they remember it88) Nerds say things just to sound smart89) Nerds can usually tell when other nerds are trying to sound smart91) Nerds hate discontinuity90) Some nerds have self-diagnosed OCD92) Nerds hate repetition92) Nerds hate repetition93) Nerds don't care about pop culture94) Nerds often make long lists of pointless things95) Nerds are a demographic96) Nerds are too smart for their own good97) Nerds think Aaron Swartz' death was suspicious98) Nerds sometimes start something, then never finish it

99) Sometimes nerds finish that thing after a few months100) There will always be nerds

Today, I feel in a gaming mood (more than usual). I just downloaded a game called FEZ (finally ported to PC on May 1), which is among the most famous games in the indie gaming scene. Since I'm pretty sure you guys aren't familiar with the indie gaming scene, I'll give you the short version.

FEZ is a puzzle platformer made by independent developer Polytron Corporation, and ranks number five in my top five most frustrating games ever. It's been in development for pretty much forever, with the project being started in 2007 and published on Xbox Live Arcade in 2012. The reason it's so well known is because it's gone through a rough development process (even more so than most indie games). The main reason for this is that the project was very ambitious, and the creators really had no idea just how difficult it would be to build the game they envisioned. After nearly 3 years of development, everything that could have possibly gone wrong did. The game's creator Phillipe Poisson (better known as Phil Fish) decided to radically redesign the game's artwork, causing it to miss its 2010 XBLA release date. Because of this, his business partner left Polytron, and the company lost its grant from the Canadian government. This left Fish and his programmer Renaud Berdard to pick up the slack. Their struggle to ready the game for release is documented in Indie Game: The Movie. Eventually they finished the game, made the 2012 release, and everybody was happy except for hardcore PC users. However, now the game is ported to PC, so I'm happy too.

*If you just want to read about the story, skip to here*

Anyway, what makes this game actually cool is its gameplay and story. The main character is a 2D sprite named Gomez. At the beginning of the game, he lives in his 2D village, and receives a letter from some old guy. The old guy shows him an ancient warp gate at the top of the village , which transports him to the top of the world. There he meets the Hexahedron (which is a big floating cube), and it informs him that the world he lives in has three spatial dimensions instead of two. His current servant is getting old (hence, the old guy), and he needs a new person to keep the 3D world in order. He gives him a magic fez, which allows him to perceive the 3D world in four separate 2D perspectives. However, just after this happens, the world malfunctions, and the hexahedron explodes and is scattered across the world. To beat the game, you have to assemble all of the cubes and cube bits to put the hexahedron back together and save the world from collapse.

*If you want to read about gameplay, skip to here*

The entire game works around this idea of revolving perspective. Depending on which direction you look at the world, the distance between objects changes, which allows you to pass obstacles that would be impossible from a different angle. I love this idea, because the fact that you can only see 1/4 of the world at any given time is what makes the game challenging, and it feels good to rotate the world and suddenly find a way past that big gap.

Having just read Chris' blog about his problems with Macintosh, it provides the perfect segway into why Chromebooks may possibly be the OS that brings us back to the computing dark ages.

I don't understand what the motivation for creating ChromeOS was in the first place. It just seems very unlike Google to manufacture a computer that designed to be limited in its function. Here's what the problems with chromebook are:1) First and foremost, Chrome OS is not Windows. I know this may make me seem like a Microsoft acolyte clinging to the dying ways, but hear me out. The simple fact is: most people and most programs use Windows, and the rest of them use either Mac or Linux. Therefore, Chrome is extremely limited in the programs that it can run, and only works with programs that are Google products or are allowed by Google to be sold on the Chrome app store. Basically, any desktop application that's not Drive does not work without modifying the operating system. That means no iMovie, no Sony Vegas, no Paint.net, no GIMP, no Photoshop, no Steam (which is a pretty major problem for me), no Oovoo, no iTunes (which turns off a lot of regular people), and no JAVA. WHY WOULD YOU MAKE A DEVICE THAT DOES NOT RUN JAVA? Fax machines and HDTVs and even microwaves run on Java. This makes me VERY ANGRY and requires EXCESSIVE USE of CAPITAL LETTERS... ugh. Also, those who are computer illiterate have to learn an entirely new operating system, so this is really not a great option for longtime windows and mac users.

2) Second, I find a very large fault in the Samsung Chromebook's hardware limitations. Chief among these is its extremely low disk space of only 16GB. Seriously? A lot of iPhones have more memory than that. If you have trouble imagining how minuscule that is, think of it this way. If you have a computer hard drive that will be full after you upload less than 20 minutes of HD video on to it, you have a problem. The other storage problem I see is its excessive integration with Drive. Now I understand the desire to have your most-used service be the biggest part of your user experience, but Chrome OS automatically uploads all of the pictures, videos, and documents you produce to your Drive account. Now this would be fine if you had unlimited data in Drive, but after two years, your 100GB of Google Drive space that you got with the purchase of your Chromebook expires, and you have to start paying a monthly fee for it. Because the Chromebook only has 16GB of storage, you are pretty much forced to pay the $3 - $5 a month to continue producing content. Of course, I could also go on and on about the Chromebook's nonexistent graphics and RAM specs, but I do want to wrap this up before Monday.

3) Pricing is also a pretty major issue for me. I don't understand why you would pay $250 for a product that is essentially incomplete. The thing I think is most ironic is that nearly all of the functions performed by the Chromebook can be performed on an iPhone 4S (which costs $99). In fact, you could buy a fully functional Acer netbook with a 320GB hard drive and Windows 8 for only $50 more.

Anyway, this is why I think the Chromebook is a terrible idea, and really don't understand the motivation behind its creation or its appeal to consumers. If I wanted an app-based mobile wireless device, I would have bought an Android phone.

I am a person with many ideas, and often I have more of them than I can express in a reasonable amount of time. Because I consider all of my ideas so great (and I hope you do too), I often have trouble choosing which ones to channel into my blogs. I try to use all of them, but by the time I get around to the older ones, I have either forgotten them, lost interest, or they are irrelevant. So now I leave the decision for next week's blog up to you, First Period CofC LA. The following are ideas I have put the most thought into, and how long I approximate they will be.

- Why Bioshock Infinite is among the greatest games ever made (long)- Why Danny Baranowsky is my new favorite musician (short)- Why Game of Thrones and George R. R. Martin are amazing (depends on how good season 3 is)- Seeing things on a deeper level (medium)- Zombie Apocalypse 1.5: General Apocalypse Survival Guide (long)- My obsession with The Last Airbender (short)- Why Chromebooks Suck (medium)- Digital Economies (long) * I'll probably do this one at some point anyway- Worldwide Pandemics and The Corrupted Blood (medium)- Pro Gaming and people with amazing voices (not sure)

I have presented the options, now the rest is up to you. I'd prefer to have this written at some point next week.

Before we jump in to this one I should probably explain crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is the use of online communities or large groups of voluntary contributors to obtain needed resources, such as content, financial support, or information. A few notable examples of well-known crowdsourcing projects are Wikipedia and Kickstarter (a crowdfunding platform). The idea has been around for hundreds of years, but has only become possible on a large scale with the invention of the internet.

Now to the science and fun part. EteRNA is a project created by biology researchers at Stanford for the purpose of creating synthetic RNA molecules to use in micromachines. Now, you're probably wondering how a research institution would go about convincing random people to help them build synthetic RNA molecules. The answer: make it a game.

EteRNA is an online game that makes building RNA fun. The game is actually very simple. The RNA starts as a long chain of adenine proteins, which are represented by yellow circles. The game then gives you a shape, and the goal is to fold the molecule into that shape by mutating each protein into adenine (yellow), cytosine (green), guanine (red), and uracil (blue). Different proteins bond with each other, and each bond has a different strength (Cytosine plus Guanine is the strongest, and Uracil plus Guanine is the weakest). Molecules usually form into stacks and loops, which are long chains of bonded proteins and large circles of unbonded proteins respectively. The game is scored by the real-life efficiency of the molecule, and each bond (depending on type) uses a number of kilocalories (kcal), and each loop creates some. The goal is to have a higher number of excess energy, making the molecule as efficient as possible. A negative score means the molecule would fold properly, but would not function because it consumes more energy than it produces.

Anyway, I just found this interesting, as crowdsourcing is becoming an increasingly common business strategy in both research and other areas (instagram just started selling its photos to third parties, which is a form of involuntary crowdsourcing). You may soon start to see it as a primary way of collecting

1. Sleep2. Food containing a large amount of carbohydrates and/or saturated fats3. Days off of school4. Flannel Pajama Pants5. Good Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV shows6. Good Video Games (excludes any game made by Activision)7. Wired magazine8. The occasional scientific or philosophical query (very occasional)9. Wubby music10. Taking a hot shower11. Making breakfast in the morning (I do actually have time for that)12. pwning n00bs13. Sleeping14. Taking a nap15. Slumbering16. A natural periodic state of rest for the mind and body, in which the eyes usually close and consciousness is completely or partially lost, so that there is a decrease in bodily movement and responsiveness to external stimuli.17. I think you get the idea...

Time to prove that all those video games I've played do have a purpose! While playing a variety of games, I've observed an interesting application of a real human tendency. For those who are not familiar with the idea of tunnel vision, it's the loss of peripheral vision, creating a "tunnel-like" field of view that narrows around the eye's point of focus. This can be caused by a number of issues with the eyes or brain, but the most common cause is high adrenaline production caused by the fight or flight response.

Anyway, I personally think tunnel vision applies to many situations where concentration is required. In fact, it is often observed in gamers, when their field of view narrows around whatever screen they are using. However, it is even further observed in first person shooters, where only the screen around their weapon's crosshairs is in the field of view. This condition of extreme concentration is often referred to as "FPS goggles" by gamers. I've also experienced this, and find it difficult to switch from a small FOV game such as an FPS or TPS (third person shooter), to a game where you must have awareness of the entire screen such as real-time strategy. Because of my recent obsession with Mass Effect and Bioshock, my Dota 2 game has suffered (at least in the short term). I think that observing the effects of extreme concentration on the mind and body could be helpful in the future, as we live in a world where we need to get stuff done.

My birthday is this week, and as a gift Conor sent me a game called Antichamber. It is without a doubt the most frustrating game I have ever played, but it's also one of the best. Antichamber is so good because it forces you to challenge everything you know about the physical world. Throughout the game, pretty much every law of physics and common sense is either applied inconsistently or completely ignored. For instance, one of the early levels includes a large bridge, and if you fall off the bridge you come to a room with two sets of stairs. The one on the left is red and goes downward, and the one on the right is blue and goes upward. No matter which of these staircases you go through, in any combination, you will follow a path that leads back to where you were standing originally. In fact, the only way to escape this room is to go back the way you came (which by the way, doesn't lead to the staircase or the room under the bridge). This room spirals around several times in a manner that is very impossible, and ends in a dead end with the door closing behind you. Overall, it's a very fun game, but not for the feint of heart. I recommend this only for the very seasoned puzzle mind.